When their vapor is inhaled, poppers create a sudden, brief rush of passion that can - crucially, for many gay men - help to loosen the anal muscles. They are, first and foremost, a sex drug. Today, the small brown bottles feel somehow both ubiquitous yet scandalous. When I asked Zmith if there was an equivalent product in straight culture, he quipped, “Mortgages? Children?” “I think there’s a sense of ownership, that this is ours,” said Adam Zmith, a British writer set to release a book this year about poppers and the gay community, Deep Sniff. Their sharp chemical scent evokes both sex and dancing - two activities that can be communal experiences for gay men. In that time, they have become an almost defining product. It’s been roughly 50 years since poppers emerged as a recreational drug in the gay community. That while almost every gay man could name the drug, very few could tell you exactly what is in it or where it comes from?Īnd that this drug - poppers - will probably give you some of the most intense, room-spinning, holy-shit-I’m-going-to-come sex you could possibly imagine?
That the feds know about this hush-hush trade but mostly look the other way? What if I told you that right now you could walk into any one of thousands of stores across the US and buy a drug that’s been banned by the government?
